Official held for revealing State secrets

Police in Ho Chi Minh City have arrested a state official for providing secret State materials to overseas reactionary organizations.

The official, Pham Chi Dung, who had been working for a State agency in HCMC, was arrested on July 17 for further investigation, police said.

Police also searched his home and office for materials related to the case.

A source said that after four reactionaries, Le Cong Dinh, Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, Le Thang Long and Nguyen Tien Trung were tried in January 2011 for “working to overthrow the people's administration”, some reactionary organizations that these men had been involved in continued conducting acts of sabotage against Vietnam.

After a lengthy investigation, police had collected enough evidence to conclude that Dung was the person who has provided those organizations with secret materials.

Dung had received thousands of dollars as reimbursement from these organizations, investigators said.

At the above-mentioned trial, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court sentenced Thuc to 16 years in prison and ordered that he be kept under surveillance by local authorities for five years after serving his sentence.

Trung was sentenced to seven years in prison and three years under surveillance by the local authorities.

The two others, Dinh and Long, were given five-years in prison followed by three years of surveillance.